12/09/2019
FOUR-BILLION YEARS AGO, errant meteorites slammed into the lifeless lump of stone that is planet Earth, sprinkling their cosmic crud like so much dandruff and sparking what would eventually become Orlando, Florida (and the rest of life as we know it), though all of that took a hell of a lot of time. It was there that a young Evan Smith picked up a skateboard toy, his instant mastery of which leads us to believe that he’d somehow absorbed a little more than his fair share of that original space gunk. Or maybe it was just concentrated in the Orlando city drinking water. Florida’s notoriously sloppy with issues of infrastructure like that. Either way, dude is out of this world. Or more specifically, he’s got a little extra-terrestrial-ity about him. He’s like us, but with a touch of something special—something weird and wonderful. Endlessly curious, freakishly good at whatever he tries, possessing relentless PMA—looks like a goddamned ET too, come to think of it. Star. Head. Body. Evan Smith, folks, live from outer space!
What are you doing right now?
I’m in Pittsburgh and I just got done unpacking and now I’m repacking.
Where’d you go? Where are you going next?
This year has been fucking mental. I’ve been all over the globe, which is such an awesome experience. We went to Barcelona for a month, we went to Australia, went to South America multiple times, just went to Brazil with DC. The reason why we’ve been traveling so much is because Element is making a video and I’m trying to put out a Thrasher part in January. With the combination of those two things, I’ve been going nonstop.
Dude, that’s crazy.
So I just unpacked and then I’m going to repack and I’m going to leave on the fourth to Minneapolis and Australia, then come back for the holidays and then I’m gonna go to Costa Rica and then in January I’m throwing a party in LA.
What kind of party? What’s the occasion?
I’m releasing a shoe, so I’m gonna try to throw a party for it for all my friends. Because it’s cool that I’m getting a shoe and all, but I wanna give something back to all my buddies so they can have a place and a time to enjoy it together and hopefully use it as an opportunity to bring people like you and Cole and Dave Hoang and all my closest friends in the industry together to celebrate our existence!
Is the party gonna have any special theme or twist to it?
No, I’m hoping there’ll be some rock ‘n’ roll bands so that people can mosh around. I’m hoping there will be an open bar of some sort so everyone can drink.
What goes through your head when thinking about your own shoe?
I’m just stoked that I have a shoe. Having the opportunity to sell something that you like with your name on it is humongous, you know what I mean? Obviously with DC’s technical support and my idea for sort of a classic hightop mixed with a boat shoe type of thing, we’ve combined some really cool technology with some really relaxed features. Those were the things that were going through my head, like, “How can I like make a comfy shoe that lasts a long time that skates great?” You know what I mean? It’s, like, I want kids to be stoked on skating, regardless. If I can add to that in any way this is an opportunity for me. I was all, “Yeah, let’s make a shoe!” I already had a hundred ideas ready to go. Let’s just say I had a couple ideas because my brain works way too quick when it comes to creating. So I’m lucky. That’s how I feel at this moment. That’s how I feel at this exact moment—I feel extremely lucky to be able to contribute to our skateboarding industry.
Backside 180 nosegrind, 180 into bank. Photo: Broach
And you wrote and directed a commercial for this shoe? Tell me about that.
Actually, me and Cole Matthews wrote the commercial idea together and we conformed it to make it work with actual visual arts and stuff. We got to do some post-production on it which is—it gets really pricey when you get into post-production. But I actually had the opportunity to direct it firsthand. So usually Chris Ray and the light dudes are, like, “Alright, we need you to do this.” So me and this guy Devon directed it. But they were definitely giving me full creative control at that moment so it was a beautiful thing. They asked me, “So what should we do?” And I was, like, “Oh my God, everyone wants to listen to me. This is crazy!” So I was, like, “Alright, let’s do this,” and I nailed it out. We had an awesome weekend of shooting at Pacific Drive—that’s where the commercial was filmed, in San Diego. I’m really excited to see the finished product. It’s being edited at the moment and I haven’t seen even one little bit of it, but I know just from the pure fact of our storyboard that the commercial is pretty funny and it builds a little bit of character, kind of going for the vibe of the original DC video. You know how there’s a little bit of cameos in it of Big Black and AVE, there’s a little bit of personality building? I’d like to go into that in the future with marketing at DC. It was a really, really cool vibe and I really like the aspect of what these dudes are offering skateboarding at that moment. And it’s really cool to see cameos when you’re a little kid. I don’t know, when you’re a little kid you see skating all the time but getting some personality from these people is a really special thing and I don’t want that to be lost. So that was kind of my goal with the commercial aside from a really cool storyline. I don’t want to give up the story. I’d like for you to see it and be, like, “Oh, that’s cool,” or “I don’t like it.” That’s fine with me, too.
Kickflip back lip. Photo: Blabac
I understand that you had a little bit of a crisis of conscience thinking about all the leather that was going to be used for you shoe. What were you tripping on?
Yeah, this is a great fucking question. Actually, originally I declined using Super Suede completely on my shoe just due to the fact that animal hides are being used and because of the leather trade. They manufacture out of China, but the treated leather comes from Southeast Asia or India. So I was over it. I didn’t want the idea of hide on my shoe even though it’s the best and it lasts longest. It freaked me out completely. And then, through all the ups and downs as far as durability testing, I couldn’t find anything else that would work. And I’m still searching right now. So if I do revise the model at all in the future, I’m gonna continue to research with the goal of making it completely suede free. But I ended up, unfortunately, using bits of suede for the toe and we came up with this rubber-backed canvas, which is my secondary material, so any spot that doesn’t have to be suede for durability, we can use the canvas and it’s rubber backed so it’s not just gonna rip right away. It lasts at least four times as long as canvas normally lasts. You know canvas, how easy it is to rip. So with that trade off and all that stuff it’s, like, really, really hard. I don’t want to support the slaughtering of any animal for anything that has to do with anything like that. I’m not interested in being one to benefit off the slaughtering of animals. I think it’s complete bullshit and garbage. I mean, I’m pretty bummed on myself for even using suede in the first place. I am. I’m actually bummed on myself and everyone who’s reading this should be super bummed on me for using suede. And you should put that in the fuckin’ interview.
How would it feel to see Danny Way in a pair of your shoes?
Dude, I would be stoked. I would love to see him fuckin’ triple flip indy 900 over the mini gap and then into a double flip front blunt on a soccer goal to take out Bob Burnquist in the new Evan Smiths. I would be so stoked.
Kickflip frontside wallride. Photo: Broach
Okay, so you directed this commercial which we can’t wait to see. I understand you’re also working on a movie?
Yeah, it’s kind of on the back burner. I have an idea. I’m really interested in photography and I’m really into making anything, pretty much. I worked on a project with my buddy Chris Blake, which is like a cross-country doc/mockumentary type of thing of just visual art, in a way. And that got me super sparked on the idea to have something filmed someday. So I started writing a storyline and stuff and maybe in the next five-to-ten years maybe I can accomplish a movie or something. I might need to hit up Ty Evans or Spike Jonze so I can get some C4.
What’s that?
C4, like the explosive.
Okay, wow. But you’ve got this Thrasher part coming out and then don’t you have a cross-country road trip video that you made with your buddies this year, too?
Yeah, but that’s not a movie. I’m talking about a real movie. I want to make, like, a legit movie someday because I think it’s fun. I want to see people acting and I want to produce them and I want to light them and film them and write the story. That sounds great—right up my alley.
What are your favorite movies right now? Do you have a favorite movie of all time?
Pulp Fiction is fucking awesome and Dazed and Confused. Those two movies are two of my all-time favorites.
Yeah, those are good. I love Linklater, too. So let me ask you this, has your relationship with Nyjah changed a little bit over the years? I heard maybe you’ve gone soft with him.
Ah, dude, I haven’t gone soft with him. Who fuckin’ told you that?
That’s just some shit I heard.
No. Okay, I like him.
Do you still give him guff like an older brother?
Oh, fuck yeah, dude, I love giving him shit. It’s been the best thing ever getting in Street League because now I have the opportunity to actually fuck with him multiple times a year, which is so fuckin’ sick! And with him switching to Nike I lost a couple trips with him, you know? So now that I’ve got him in the League I’m gonna cut his little Achilles tendon and take his money! No, I’m just kidding.
Evan will find the air. Photo: Blabac
You don’t seem like a very competitive person. How are you doing in the League?
It’s a really interesting dynamic being involved in Street League. It’s a little bit outside of where I ever saw myself going with skateboarding. But I feel like, with that being said, maybe I could give those 2,000 people that go to each event—not the people that are watching on TV, not all that TV stuff, I’m just talking about the actual 2,000 people that show up in that arena and are watching skateboarding from the stands—maybe giving them inspiration outside of just, like, dumbing down your tricks to land them in the contest. My goal is to fly as high and as far as possible and slam as hard as possible just to show them that that is part of skateboarding. If I have to get taken out by a fucking ambulance in an event in an arena then so be it. That’s why I do this. I’m personally interested in showing that skateboarding can be big and you can grind really far. Not to discredit any of the tricks that are being done, it’s just it’s a different style of skateboarding; more like rails and flip tricks down stairs and hitting the ledges. It looks small from the top of the stadium, is all that I’m getting at. Slowly but surely they’ve been building more large quarter pipes so people like Ryan Sheckler are fucking launching off of them and people are getting so happy and hyped because of all that shit.
They lifted the ban on air time over there?
Exactly. They’re expanding their skateboarding to involve more air time, which is amazing. And that’s exactly what I like about watching skateboarding. When I watch videos of Neil Blender he’d go longer and farther and it’s shit where you’re thinking, “Wow, I knew he could do that trick, but, dude, he did it 20 feet longer than I could have ever imagined somebody doing it!” Uh, there’s a shooting in San Bernardino, California, up to 20 victims reported according to fire department. The world is crazy and we’re just thinking about skating. What’s going on?
It’s nuts. So do you think that you’ve ever gotten in Nyjah’s head at the contest?
No, those dudes know that when the time comes, even if I get into the finals or something, I haven’t really put anything together ever in my life. So I would doubt that those dudes could be scared of me doing well. Like, I’m not interested. I’m just interested in skating as hard as possible. Like, whatever comes, that’s sick. If I have a good day of skating, that’s rad, I’ll take your fuckin’ money, Nyjah. But at the same time, that’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in hanging out with a bunch of rad people behind the scenes. What most people don’t know about Street League is that there’s a bunch of sick-ass cunts working all over that place. You know, there are a bunch of cool people that are our friends—your friends and my friends, you know?
The Skate World 